Apple is considered the most valuable company in the world, because it not only makes and successfully sells popular personal electronics, but also knows how to avoid paying overseas taxes.

Last year, the maker of the iPhone paid only 1.9% in taxes on profits generated outside the United States.

In terms of actual dollars, Apple paid $713 million in taxes on $36.87 billion in foreign profits.

Its tax bill was considerably higher in the U.S., where the corporate tax rate is 35%. However, the company’s effective tax rate in 2011 was less than 10%. Apple paid $12.26 billion in federal taxes and $1.06 billion in state taxes.

Critics noted that while Apple did not break any laws or even use tax loopholes in paying so little overseas tax, the situation demands reforms be adopted.

“These technology giants are playing by the rules, but the problem is the rules are broken,” wrote Zack Whittaker at ZDNet. “Who sets the rules? The government. And yet the government all but takes it out on the individual taxpayer by making them drag the country out of economic downturn kicking and screaming.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Apple's Taxes on Overseas Profits Last Year: Less than 2 Percent (by Roger Cheng, CNN)

How Apple Avoids Paying Billions in Taxes (by Adam Clark Estes, Atlantic Wire)

Apple Paid Less than 2% Tax on Overseas Profits Last Year (by Rupert Neate, The Guardian)

Apple 10-K Report (Security and Exchange Commission) (pdf)